Columba College entered a junior futsal team in the Otago Secondary School Futsal Champs last Friday at the Edgar Centre and the team had a great day playing in a great tournament!

The Otago Secondary School Futsal Championships were on recently at the Edgar Centre and Columba College put a junior team in the Girls' Year 9/10 Grade. The talented group of players got off to a somewhat slow start against a very strong Bayfield side, and despite losing 3-1, the team spirit and enjoyment of competition was clear to see.

Second game up against Kavanagh College, and the girls found more space and started stringing some fabulous passes together, taking out the game 5-1. It was then off to the semi finals and Columba was down to face a strong Queens High School side. The girls played out of their skins and got out to an early 2-0 lead. Queens were given minimal goal scoring opportunities thanks to fantastic team play by Columba. When they did get a goal scoring opportunity, Kate Baskerville was there to clean-up and prevented the opposition from scoring. Columba won their semi final 3-0, and the girls were very pleased to be heading to the final! 

Back against Bayfield High School in the final and Columba got ahead early. Bayfield responded immediately, levelling the score at 1-1. Not long after, Columba went up to 2-1 but again Bayfield managed to peg the lead back and went into half time with a 3-2 lead. The girls threw everything at Bayfield in the second half but couldn’t find a way through their excellent defence. Well done to Bayfield High School who went on to win the final 4-2.

The Columba Sports Department extends a big thank you to our Coach and Manager for the tournament, Robert and Deborah Body. Thank you also to all the girls who played in the tournament with passion, pride, and great sportsmanship. The team did a fantastic job representing the school and were a pleasure to coach and manage. It was wonderful to see a group of Columba Year 9 students getting so close to taking out the Year 9/10 comp! Well done everyone!